1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to hair-restraint devices and devices for decorating, constraining, and shaping hair.
2. Description of Related Art
In the prior art, hair restraint devices have been produced in a variety of shapes and sizes. These run the gamut from flexible devices such as simple hair ribbons, rubber bands, xe2x80x9cscrunchiesxe2x80x9d, and the like to barrettes, combs, and other inflexible structures. Previous inventions of this sort include U.S. Pat. No. 5,878,755 which teaches a rigid helical structure without a restraining pin that wraps around bundles of hair and which allows hair to unwind from the device easily.
The present invention consists of a helical structure made from rigid, semi-rigid, or flexible material with a straight axis down the length of the helix, the pitch of the helix being consistently the same distance the entire length. The invention also possesses a single pin with a decorative end, the decoration not part of this invention. The pin is inserted down the axis of the helical structure and the pin can be of varying thicknesses, depending on the embodiment selected. The pitch distance and the diameter of the helix are not necessarily related to each other.
Unlike other previous inventions (notably U.S. Pat. No. 5,878,755), the presence of the pin inside the helix makes the relationship between the pitch width and the diameter of the helical structure relatively unimportant, because the pin holds the hair to be wound into the invention in place. The pin is a significant improvement in functionality for this type of hair-restraint device.
It is an object of this invention to provide a hair restraint device that is simple to manufacture and has a minimum number of parts.
It is an objective of this invention to provide a hair-restraint device that has decorative features and facilities to attach other decorations.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a hair-restraint device that will accept and hold bundles of hair of any thickness less than the pitch distance.
It is a further objective of this invention to enable this invention to accommodate any pin thickness up to the interior diameter of the helical structure.